All spacecraft performance is based on a linear series of engine components which can be upgraded in thousands of possible combinations. Pilots will treat their engine systems like their PCs, adding modifiers to increase the performance, upgrading the engine as though it were a CPU and even overclocking them (and risking flame-outs!).

Intakes

Intakes are the hydrogen ram scoops on the front of the spacecraft which fuel it by gathering spaceborne hydrogen.. Upgrades alter the effectiveness and the profile of the vehicle; the more effectively a ship takes in fuel the more efficient its engines. The tradeoff is that, unless countermeasures are installed, this also increases the radar signature. The appearance of the ship is altered as well: more primitive intakes look like physical fan blades, others glow different colors as heat capacity increases.

Modifiers

Modifiers are upgrade modules that affect the overall performance of the engine.

Engine

The engine is the core power plant of the ship. Engine output varies depending on manufacturer, model and type (types include Fission, Fusion, Anti-Matter, etc.) Each selection offers you a different base performance. Engine model examples: General Fusion 3000, Merlin Agena-L, Korolev Atlas III, Suncom Omega.

Thrusters

Thrusters are the end of the chain, the physical output point of the engine. They modify the overall engine output: burn at different rates, impact the range, increase or decrease the radar profile of the ship (you might pay extra for "silencer" thrusters which don't give off such a large drive plume,) etc. Here you will see a significant visual difference: different size nozzles, different colors of thrust, etc. THRUSTERS are defined by two values; its THRUST RATING (TR), which determines the amount of thrust it can deliver. The bigger the number, the larger and more powerful the thruster. A 10 rated thruster would be used on a cruiser's main engines, and a 1 rated thruster would be a maneuvering thruster on a RSI Aurora. You can normally fit a thruster of the same or lower rating but you couldn't attach a 5 rated thruster to a 3 rated thruster slot. Most ships have higher rated thruster slots for the Main Engine thrust and at least 4, but usually 8 lower rated thruster slots for the Maneuvering and Retro thrusters. The maneuvering thrusters are used to change the ship's orientation as well adjust its overall velocity vector. Retro thrusters arrest the ships velocity. Frequently a front mounted maneuvering thruster will also perform retro fire duties.

The second important value for a thruster is its ARTICULATION TYPE; Fixed doesn't move. The thrusters on the Apollo lunar lander would be classified as fixed. Then there are Jointed thrusters; these are rigid nozzles that can rotate on one or two axis. After this there are Flex thrusters; which can articulate on one or two axis, but aren't rigid. Think of these like the nozzles on a Harrier or an F-35. Finally there are Vectored thrusters – which have vector flaps that help direct the stream of exhaust.

As an example, the Hornet has a maximum of a 4-rated Vectored Main Engine thruster, four 2 rated flex maneuvering jets (with the front two also performing retro duties) on the top and four 2 rated jointed thrusters on the bottom.

UPGRADE MODULES

A ship's Upgrade Capacity defines its ability for a ship to add additional modules or systems to the base hull. Some upgrades–for instance, an enlarged cargo hold–will require more than one upgrade slot.

The number and combination of potential upgrade modules is nearly limitless, but some examples include:

Enhanced Cargo Hold

Alters your ship's overall cargo capacity. These come in different flavors: one might give you more room, another might include an electromagnetic barrier that hides contraband from police scans.

Internal Bulkhead

Increases your ship's capacity for taking damage (available in different materials: plasteel, durasteel, isometa etc.)

Avionics Upgrade

Increase your ship's targeting range, friend or foe identification speed, depth of field, etc. with any number of internal computer hardware updates.

Refinery Tools

Larger ships are capable of tractoring in spaceborne junk and ore mined from asteroids. With a refinery lab aboard your ship you can reduce them to their core components, increasing immediate resale value.

Gun Capacitor

Increase the amount of energy your ship can shift from engines to guns at any given time.

Jump Drive

If you're going to travel from system-to-system, you'll need a jump drive! Jump drives range from a journeyman model for ordinary pilots to complex explorer models that increase your chances when charting a new star system. Another option is a stealth model which reduces your "jump flash" and makes it easier for you to travel undetected.

Shield Generator

Available in a thousand makes and models, each of which can be chained or tuned to a specific pilot's preferences! Standard shield generators provide X protection at Y recharge for Z energy usage per second. Other models might reflect particular types of guns (ie, a 20% chance of deflecting an energy blast, but weak against physical shot and the like) and still others might impact a ship's stealth. A strong forward "ramming shield" offers an option to players who want an alternative method of dogfighting...

Note that all of these upgrades also have tradeoffs. The ability to shift more energy to guns also decreases it from engines and shields, an increased cargo hold means that maneuverability or speed is impacted, etc.

HARDPOINTS

Every ship has hardpoints on which a variety of different weapons can be mounted. Each hardpoint has a classification. A lower classification can always be mounted on a higher classification hardpoint, but not the other way around.

CLASS 1

Fixed Gun. This is your standard forward facing laser, neutron cannon, particle gun, etc.

CLASS 2

Articulated Gun. Think the guns in Freelancer or the smart weapons found in later Wing Commanders. Class 2 hardpoints are rarer and more expensive, but they allow guns to rotate on an arc rather than fire point blank.

CLASS 3

Pylon. This is where you mount missiles, ECM units, radar pods, drop tanks, additional ammunition, special scanners, etc.

CLASS 4

Turret. Uses the same fixed guns as class 1, but mounted in a separate area of the ship which may be crewed by another person. Turret slots can also mount pylon-type weapons (i.e. a tractor beam or a chaff dispenser.)

Class 5

Manned point defense turrets, generally mounted on larger ships and capital ships.

Class 6

Heavy manned capital ship turrets – used for ship-to-ship combat.

Class 7

Spinal mount lasers – heavy hitters that are effective against medium and large ships.

Class 8

Capital ship cannons – extended range heavy weapons used for capital ship battles in space.

Weapons in Star Citizen / Squadron 42 are split into two major categories; Guns and Self Propelled (Missiles, Countermeasures)

GUNS

Design Philosophy

Guns are an exception to the "more is better" rule that applies to all other upgrades. Looking back at the original Wing Commander games, there's a clear jump: you had the original games where there were between three and eight gun types and players had a clear feel for each one and the later games where there were ten to twenty and they all felt like different colors of the same thing. Anyone can tell you which their favorite gun loadout in Wing Commander I or II was (and it will be different for each person) whereas few can tell you which guns the ships in Wing Commander III forward even had.

Like those earlier games, we want to design a few iconic gun types and then build on that canon (pun intended!) over time. Variation can be added with modifiers (gun silencer, gun cooler, over clocker) and different companies or subordinate models of the same weapon (perhaps the ASD Mass Driver is distinctly inferior to the Behring model.) But developing a new gun–say, introducing the first Particle Cannon–should ultimately be treated as a major event in the game world.

Ballistic (hard-ammo) Weapons:

• Klaus & Werner Mass Driver Cannon
• ASD PN-21 Scattergun
• Behring "Ripper" GaussGun
• MaxOx 35mm Dredge Gun (fires AP Sabot rounds)

SELF-PROPELLED WEAPONS

Note that all self-propelled weapons are mounted on pylon-based launchers which can be attached to a class 3 or class 4 hardpoint. The same general class of self-propelled weapons will be produced by any number of companies and we will encourage player loyalty to "their" brand. Maybe a more expensive ‘name brand' missile has a little bit more of a kick, versus cheap store brands and even cheaper ‘discount' missiles that have a higher rate of failure.

Missiles

Missiles are defined by three important components:

GUIDANCE: This can be Dumb (no target acquisition – this is the behavior of a rocket), Heat Seeking, Image Recognition, Friend or Foe.

PROPULSION: This is normally some form of a thermal jet propellant system; either a solid or liquid propellant. Some larger missiles can however use more exotic forms of propulsion, closer to what a spaceship will use.

PAYLOAD: This can be PBX High Explosive (HE), Nuclear (Fission and Fusion), EMP and Anti-Matter.